Lawmakers and regulators have in recent years focused on the potential threats posted by Chinese phone carriers, which serve a small number of customers in the United States. Lawmakers including Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, a Democrat and the current majority leader, said in a 2019 letter that the F.C.C. should review the ability of China Unicom and China Telecom to operate in the United States. The F.C.C. told China Telecom in October that it could no longer offer service in America.
The New York Stock Exchange has delisted both companies, along with China Mobile, and President Biden also said last year that Americans could not invest in any of the three companies.
The Trump administration also ran a lengthy campaign against the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei, warning allies that they should not use the company’s equipment in their next-generation 5G wireless networks and cutting off access to core components for its smartphones.
In 2020, the White House unsuccessfully tried to force ByteDance, a Chinese internet company, to sell TikTok, the viral video app, to an American owner, also citing national security reasons. Mr. Trump initially appeared to have forced a deal that would see much of the app sold to the enterprise software company Oracle. The sale was never finalized.